Arguing. Fighting. Complaining. It seems that this is the only thing our group knows now. Two days ago the military left, colonel Brady was shot, and the infected attacked. Since then everyone had been arguing over who was in charge, we all wanted a say when it came down to how this place was going to continue to function, but as always there was at least one person who wanted to be in charge of it all. It's funny how it seems no one knows what to do, when there's no police, military or government around to tell us what to do. This group was once together, this group was once friends, but now this group is divided, broken, and hectic. I wasn't certain if we'd ever agree on one leader, but I was certain that I wanted out.
"Why does Jim get to choose who eats and who doesn't? Why can't the rest of us choose?" Some lady asked hysterically.
"Look, Cathie, why don't you just be happy you're getting to eat today," a man named Parker responded "besides you wouldn't understand how hard it is to choose who eats and who doesn't, and we can't all vote for who does and doesn't cause it'll tear this group apart." The woman shook her head, but looked down with a defeated look before walking away. I scoffed, and left to go find Mike, in these past few days it had dawned on me that I hadn't really spoken to my friends, which was a mistake. After a few minutes I found Mike's tent, him and Mel were sitting on his bed while kissing, which seems to be something they always did nowadays.
"Hey guys." I called out to them, Mike fell backwards off the bed, alerted by my presence.
"Oh, uh, hey Carter." Mike responded, shock etched on his face that I was around. "What's up?"
"Just came to talk to y'all for a bit, Blake and I are heading out in a little bit."
"Ah, where to this time? Pharmacy?" Mel questioned
"No, this time Blake and I are goin to Abilene. We're gonna try and hit the pawnshop, and a few other places." I answered
"Wow. Well be careful, you don't know what's out there." Mike cautioned
"I will, but anyways how have you guys been?"
"Eh, as good as we can be I guess, all this bickering is kinda annoying though." Mel said.
"Yea, I hear ya. Well anyways I should go find Blake so we can get ready to leave." I responded, before leaving them to continue what they were doing before I interrupted. I walked around a little bit before bumping to Claire, literally, she stumbled backwards a couple steps and looked up angrily
"Hey watch where you're goin bozo." She demanded.
"Yes ma'am." I snickered, and she looked up surprise evident on her face as she brushed her brown locks out of her hair.
"Carter. Man I haven't talked to you in awhile."
"Yea I've... I've been busy, you know goin on supply runs with Blake and that sorta thing." I gave her an awkward smile
"I know, so how are you?" She asked, smiling timidly and brushing a piece of hair out of her face and putting behind her ear.
"I'm good. How about you?" I responded
"I'm scared. I don't know what's going to happen next, or what any of us are going to do," She answered nervously, glancing around her shoulder as if scared someone might overhear her "I don't think Jim is a good leader, he's not the smartest person, plus I've heard he sneaks extra rations to Jessica, all because they sleep together. But that can't be true can it?"
I just stared at her, not knowing what to say, she bowed her head and closed her eyes "I miss my family Carter." When she looked at me again tears had starting making their way down her face.
"Me too." I whispered, she looked at me sadly, then I pulled her into an embrace. After a minute she pulled away and gave me a heavy smile
"I gotta go, Laurie was looking for me earlier, and Blake is in the office waiting for you." She said timidly, I nodded and started making my way towards the office. As I approached the office, I watched Blake for a moment as he stood with his back against the wall. His hair was more disheveled than before, his goatee had started growing, causing stubble to grow over the rest of his face. His blue eyes were blanketed by sadness. Slowly I opened the door to the office not taking my eyes off Blake the whole time, upon noticing I had entered the room, Blake looked up from the knife in his hand.
"Oh hey, Carter, you ready?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper, his eyes glazed over with grief. I nodded in response, then I grabbed the machete I had grown accustomed to, Blake then handed me a duffel bag before picking up a claw hammer on his way out of the armory. "let's go." he muttered as he led me outside and towards a black minivan, we threw our bags in the back and I hopped up front. He started the vehicle and stared at the now open gate in front of him.
"Are you alright?" I asked, "you know you don't have to come with me, I can take care of myself"
"No, no I can do this." He responded, then he started driving. As we drove down the road leading out of Merkel, we passed many abandoned cars, drove by some other survivors and saw a couple of the infected stumbling around, but as scary as that was it wasn't as bad as the piles of burned and burning corpses. We must've passed at least five piles with ten or more bodies in.
"My God, would you look at this place," Blake whispered, "remember a few weeks ago when people would drive to Abilene for groceries or to see their cousins. Now it's..." he trailed off
"Horrible," I finished "all of it, this whole thing it's just awful. But it'll end won't it? Humanity has prevailed against this kind of thing before right? I mean maybe not an undead apocalypse, but we'll come back from this. We have to." I muttered, only half convinced.
Blake nodded "that's right. We will come back from this. Go back to how things used to be" his voice cracked, and I noticed a tear slide down his face as he whispered "how things used to be." Over and over again..
The remainder of the trip was spent in total silence, the radio wasn't working anymore it was all static, the only sound we really heard was the quick sound of a growl from an infected that was wandering around in the street. Finally we stopped at a Chillers gas station, grabbing our bags and weapons before making our way to wherever Blake decided to loot.
"Alright, we need to look for food, weapons, maybe check out a local pharmacy for medicine, uh also some important hygienic products. So where do you want to search?" Blake asked looking at a crumpled piece of paper with items listed on it.
"Hmm, well I'm gonna state the obvious and say Wal-Mart." I suggested, Blake raised a questioning brow at me
"Wal-Mart? Yea Wal-Mart has everything but stores like those would have been looted first we gotta think of something else, of course we'll check, but that'll be the last place we go. Let's see, we could try Walgreens, they'll have some medicine and bottled water." Blake stated, thinking about it I nodded.
"Let's do it, maybe after we can hit up a pawn shop, they're sure to have some weapons." I added, Blake nodded and he led the way. We weren't even walking for a full ten minutes before a couple infected stumbled upon us, pulling out my machete I cautiously approaching the first one, while Blake moved swiftly and knocked the other one to the ground with a quick blow to the back of the infected's knee cap, before slamming the clawed part of the hammer onto its head. Raising its arms towards me, the infected growled at me baring its teeth like a rabid dog, snapping its jaws, it's yellow, glazed eyes staring at me hungrily. Cringing in disgust I dodged to the side as the thing lunged, then stabbed it in the back of the head, though the thing must've been fresh because the machete got stuck in the base of its skull. Breathing heavily I grasped the machete by the handle and ushered all my strength into one yank, and it came out with a sick suctioning sound, sending a small spray of blood out onto the ground and onto my pant leg.
Looking over at Blake, I noticed him staring down at the infected he had just killed, a look of disdain on his face. He glanced over at me, and nodded before stepping over the corpse and leading the way once more. We walked in silence for another ten minutes before finally finding Walgreens, cautiously approaching it, Blake had his hammer at the ready and signaled for me to do the same.
"Alright, when we get in there you stay close by my side the whole time, understood?" He whispered seriously, I nodded and followed him up to the doors. He slowly pulled the door open and took a step inside, then another, and another, then I followed him. The pharmacy was dark, the only light coming from the doors and the few windows, illuminating some blood on the ground and the tipped over carts the eerie silence gave this place a sinister feel to it.
I kept turning in circles making sure nothing was behind us, luckily the aisle shelves weren't taller than us, so we could see past them. I was just about to ask if the place was clear when I heard a banging noise, startled, I jumped to the left causing a shelf to knock over. Cans fell to the ground and rolled off causing even more noise.
"Shit." I whispered, angry at myself, Blake gave me a murderous look, I was beginning to hope that maybe I didn't alert anything, but that was before I heard more banging, this time from the front of the pharmacy and I realised that I had put us between a rock and a hard place.
"Oh that's great, let's just hurry up and grab what we need and leave, you cover the left half and I'll sweep through the right." Blake muttered angrily and before I could apologise he took off, sighing to myself I turned and started going through the aisles on the left side.
"Canned corn, canned beans, canned tuna, gross, canned everything." I muttered while shoving the canned goods into my duffel bag, then I dumped an entire package of water bottles in with the cans and just as I was about to put in another can, I heard the sound of the door swing open and I knew my time had just become a lot shorter. How many were there? Five? Ten? Twenty? The growls were so mixed together I couldn't tell, then I heard Blake yelp and instinctively I ran towards the sound.
"Carter, run!" I heard Blake yell from the other end of the store, searching frantically for him I failed to realise the growls from behind me and the next thing I knew I was grabbed. Screaming I fought off the assailant, I felt it's hot breath close to my neck and I realised with utter horror that I was fixing to die and no one would save me, I felt the thing's teeth clamp onto my shoulder and I screamed from the immense pain I felt. No, the immense pain I expected, but none came, then I remembered I had my duffel bag on my shoulder, the strap must've been too thick for the infected to chomp through. Not wasting anymore time I threw the bag off my shoulder, it fell to the floor along with the infected and I pulled out my machete and gave the thing a swift swipe to the head silencing the grotesque monstrosity for good.
Keeping my machete out I grabbed my bag and turned to the exit, only to see more infected stumbling in, seeing the part of the store where they kept all the medicine at, I ran and hopped the counter and tried the door but found it locked. "Shit." I fearfully whispered, then I started kicking the door in a feeble attempt to break it down, the growls of the infected getting closer. "Come on Carter, you can't let this be the end." I muttered through clenched teeth, putting all the force I could into kicking the door. I got ready to kick the door again when suddenly it opened, not even bothering to see who it was I shoved them further back into the room before running in and slamming the door shut and locking it.
"What the hell man?" The stranger whispered as he got up "What's your deal?" Ignoring the man's question I frantically looked around for an exit only to see a window that was far out of my reach and a door that was nailed shut with a sturdy looking plank of wood. I ran towards the door and yanked on the wood, it didn't even budge, then I started looking around for something I could use.
"Yea, just start, uh, trying to find something you like, when you're done, I'll check you out at the register and you can be on your way." The stranger muttered sarcastically, then the door I locked started being banged on by the infected outside. After throwing several boxes to the floor I realised I didn't need an escape route, I have a machete I can kill the infected on the other side, one at a time. I walked past the confused stranger and unlocked the door, pulling out my machete I slowly opened the door letting one of them stick it's head in, then I slammed the door trapping it there. Keeping my body weight against the door I sliced the infected's head, causing it to drop to the floor.
Then I felt more bodies press on the door and I knew there were more than I could handle, then I came upon another realisation. A plan formed in my mind I looked over at the stranger who was cowering in the back of the room looking at the door in horror. Looking at the cowering man I remembered being trapped in the house with Liah and Adeline, all of us pushed up against the door and Liah chose to stay behind and get eaten, allowing Adeline and I to escape. Without giving it another thought I swung the door open all the way, keeping my body pressed against the wall, the door kept me hidden from the infected's sight, the stranger let out a blood curdling scream and I heard boxes being thrown in a sorry attempt to ward off the infected. Once I heard the sound of blood hitting the floor I left my hiding place and walked out of the room before shutting the door once more.
"Carter?" I heard Blake whisper, I turned around and smiled before running and embracing the man
"Blake, thank God you're still alive." I said, tears forming in my eyes, Blake chuckled and replied
"I'm glad you're alive too, but what did you just do? I saw the infected at the door, and I was going to kill them but the door opened, and I heard someone scream and then you came out. So what happened?" Blake questioned.
Sighing I turned my head to the floor, "I... I used the stranger as a distraction." I coldly answered.
"W...what do you mean? You mean you used him to get the infected's attention, so you could escape?" Blake continued, his eyes filled with horror, I just nodded
"I used him as bait so I could get out alive. It's fine, it's not that big of a deal he was just a stranger, and he wasn't doing anything to help while I was in there, he just made sarcastic jokes so I used him as bait to get away." Blake shook his head and replied
"How the hell could you just do that? Why would you," he stopped and sighed, "let's just go to the pawnshop and then go home." His voice cracked and he turned around before walking out. Sighing, I just followed him..
We walked for another hour before the pawn shop was in sight, I walked with my head down and then bumped into Blake who had stopped abruptly. I was fixing to ask what wrong but I could hear it, hear them. Screaming, gunshots, growls, more screaming, more gunshots, even more growls. I looked up and saw we were at a fence, and inside the fence was the Abilene safezone, but it wasn't a safezone anymore. I saw people running around everywhere, I saw military people shooting at a huge crowd of infected that had just taken down a gate. But that wasn't the scary part, the scary part was some of the military wasn't even shooting at the infected, they were shooting at the civilians. One by one the people dropped as bullets tore into them, and I knew we had to get out of there.
"Blake, come on. We gotta go now!" I whispered urgently, that's when I noticed another huge crowd of infected stumbling towards Blake and me. Grabbing his shoulder I dragged him back the way we came, after a minute he snapped out of his trance and he began to run on his own. We ran all the way back to our vehicle, only to find the place our vehicle was parked, the vehicle itself was gone.
"Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Blake yelled, the crowd of infected were far behind us, but without a car they would surely catch up. As I racked my brain for ideas, I heard the sound of a car engine starting and I turned around to see our minivan pull up beside us, the window rolled down and a man I never thought I'd see again yelled at us
"Get in."
"H...how did.." I stuttered, the man just smiled and rolled his then gestured for us to get in, and without wasting another thought Blake and I jumped in the van.
"Who are you exactly?" Blake asked
"I'm Luke Sinclair, who are you?" Luke asked
"I'm Blake Jackson. Do.. do you know Carter?" Blake inquired, Luke nodded and replied
"That right there is my favorite godson."
